After weeks of relentless propaganda and mud-slinging, lawmakers eventually voted for Abraham Samad, a Makassar antigraft activist, to head the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
His closest rivals, Adnan Pandu Praja, Zulkarnain, Bambang Widjojanto and provisional chief Busyro Muqoddas, became his deputies to serve until 2014.
Abraham replaced Busyro, a law professor who succeeded Antasari Azhar, who lost the job after being convicted of masterminding a businessman’s murder. Busyro’s loss was widely expected after lawmakers were irate at his brutal critiques of the political elite’s corrupt behavior and lavish lifestyle.
This year’s KPK leadership election was particularly dramatic as it took place when the KPK was handling mammoth graft cases involving lawmakers, government bureaucrats and businesspeople.
The KPK has sent dozens of legislators to jail and investigated more, proving the public perception that the House of Representatives was among the most corrupt state institutions along with the judicial system, police and ministries.
The best known politician that the KPK has sent to trial is Muhammad Nazaruddin, an ex-lawmaker and ex-treasurer of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party. Nazaruddin allegedly had a hand in state projects worth Rp 6 trillion (US$666 million).
The open conflict between the KPK and the House has been so bitter that lawmaker Fachry Hamzah from the Prosperous justice Party (PKS), a self-proclaimed “clean and professional” Islamist party, has gone as far as campaigning for the dissolution of the KPK.
The “fit and proper” test for KPK leadership candidates smacked of lawmakers’ maneuvers to weaken the commission. From the beginning, they suspiciously exploited trivial administrative issues to foil the process when the commission incumbents’ term was ending. For instance, they refused the candidates’ wealth reports simply because it was presented with old forms.
You can imagine how hard it is when you have no choice but to pick your own prosecutors.
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The long-awaited trial of Democratic Party politician Nazaruddin began on Nov. 30. The Corruption Court charged the 33-year-old former lawmaker with taking a bribe to help a contractor win a Rp 191 billion athlete dormitory project for the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Palembang, South Sumatra.
Nazaruddin, who hid in several countries before he was arrested by Interpol in Cartagena, Colombia, in August, has also been implicated in numerous other lucrative contracts involving other government offices and will likely face more charges.
His trial received enermous public attention because his case so well illustrates how entrenched corruption is in Indonesia, involving politicians, state bureaucrats, state institutions and politically well-connected businesses.
Nazaruddin owns or controls scores of companies that run government projects worth Rp 6 trillion, according to the KPK. In the SEA Games dormitory project, he publicly named high-profile figures such as Democratic Party chief Anas Urbaningrum, Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng and fellow lawmakers Angelina Sondakh, I Wayan Koster and Mirwan Amir.
But to many people’s surprise, only Angelina was mentioned in Nazaruddin’s indictment. KPK spokesman Johan Budi argued that investigators need more evidence to put the other names’ in the indicment.
At his first trial, he also made a stunning revelation: He had met with President Yudhoyono at the President’s private residence in Cikeas, Bogor, just hours before fleeing to Singapore.
Nazaruddin accused KPK investigators of attempting a cover-up by denying him the chance to reveal more about the meeting with Yudhoyono. Instead, he said, investigators made him talk about his time on the run starting with his arrival in Singapore.
Senior Democrat Party officials have confirmed the Cikeas meeting, although they all denied it had anything to do with Nazaruddin’s subsequent escape.
This intriguing revelation has the public wondering if Yudhoyono and other democrats knew or even endorsed his escape.
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Indonesia let out a sigh of relief when the much hyped 50th “West Papua Independence Day” observance on Dec. 1 passed with only minor incidents.
Tensions have been high in the several weeks ahead of the “independence day” — as always is the case. Previously, migrants in Papua reported they had received threats from indigeneous Papuans who wanted them to leave for good. Papuans in Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Bali claimed they had been followed and their dormitories raided by security officers who had been constantly monitoring their activities.
Three Papuan political activists were found dead after security forces raided a Papuan People’s Conngress in Abepura on Oct. 19. Freeport employees were targetted by unidentified assailants and Papuan students in Java and Bali were reportedly harassed by police.
In many places throughout Papua and West Papua provinces, people observed the auspicious day with thanksgiving prayers. An attack on two police officers in Jayapura and a skirmish between an armed gang and Brimob elite police members in Puncak Jaya were the most serious incidents reported.
Nevertheless, the many Morning Star flags raised by Free Papua Organization (OPM) activists and its sympathizers in Papua, as well as the pro-independence rallies staged in major cities in Java, only showed that the authorities’ often repressive measures have failed to dampen Papuans’ spirit for self-determination.
— Pandaya